The Egyptian Mummification Process

Egyptians believed that being mummified was the only way to have an afterlife, but only if the body had been properly embalmed. The spirt of the body would go through long processes before entering the afterlife. Going through these processes will determine what will happen to the deseeded body in the afterlife.

Mummification is the beginning process to get the body ready for the afterlife. The Egyptians would use their best methods on the wealthy, but would use cheaper alternatives for the poor. “The Egyptian embalmers were so skilled that people mummified four thousand years ago still have skin, hair and recognizable features such as scars and tattoos.” (Milmore) The dead body would be brought to the embalmers by the family/relatives who would pick out the mummification process they want for their family member. The embalmers would remove all the organs from the body except for the heart. They would leave the heart in because the heart was needed with the deceased in the Hall of Judgment. The
When the body died, the soul would go to the Kingdom of Dead. Arriving at one’s reward in the afterlife was important. They would require a sin-free heart and the ability to say spells, passwords and formulae of the Book of the Dead. They would stand before 42 divine judges and pleaded their innocence of any sins that they did in their lifetime. The Book of the Dead would provide them with the right words to use in front of each judge, ensuring that they would be able to pass this process even if they were not innocent. The deceased was shown before Oriris who would weight their hearts on a scale, and if there heart was lighter than a feather than they could pass through to the new life as spirts. The people whose hearts were wicked, were thrown to the goddess Amemet who was told to have the rear of a hippopotamus, the fore of a lion, and the face of a